Man Gives Birth to Kitten in a Dream. What Does It Mean?

I had a dream that I gave birth to a kitten. As if that’s not ridiculous enough, I’m male. What does it mean? Signed, Confused Dude

Dear Confused Dude,

I understand your confusion. On the surface, this dream appears to make no sense. Give birth to a kitten? How does a male give birth to something, especially an animal? As you’ll see in a moment, though, your dream makes sense when analyzed using the irregular logic of dreams.

First, let’s look at what giving birth can mean in a dream. While some dreams are literal, and a dream of giving birth can be a harbinger of things to come, it is anatomically impossible for you to give birth or even get pregnant. So we can rule out that interpretation. However, there are other definitions of giving birth.

For example, people are said to give birth to ideas and creative endeavors. In this sense, giving birth is a wonderful metaphor. When I wrote my first book about dreams I remember feeling like I had something inside of me that wanted to get out. In a sense I was “pregnant” with an idea. Nine months after starting the manuscript, I “gave birth” to my book. A lot of grunting and screaming was involved.

Using that logic to understand your dream, I’d surmise that a new quality is emerging in your personality. You are “giving birth” to something new in yourself.

Now for the kitten part. An animal in a dream often symbolize a part of the dreamer that relates to the animal. The meaning depends on your associations, in this case with kittens. Off the top of your head, what are your impressions of kittens? For some people they are cute and innocent. For other people they are helpless and dependent.

Put these two ideas together and I’d bet that your dream is about something “kitten-like” in you that is just beginning to become conscious. It has probably been beneath the surface of your awareness for a while, and now it is coming into the light of day. The dream graphically shows you what it’s like to “give birth” to something new in your personality.

Also, because cats are associated with petting, and “petting” is something that lovers do, a possible interpretation of your dream is you have recently become intimate with a partner and a lot of petting is involved. Get ’em, tiger.

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I'm J.M. DeBord, aka RadOwl. I'm a best-selling author of four books including The Dream Interpretation Dictionary, RadOwl's Crash Course in Dream Interpretation, and Dreams 1-2-3. I also created DreamSchool.net, the online home for dream interpretation courses, and D3, a 3-step process of dream interpretation. I've been a guest on Coast to Coast AM, was quoted extensively in the Boston Globe, and was featured as a dream expert in Woman's World Magazine.

Being asleep in a dream can mean you go through periods while awake when you are “asleep on your feet,” or it’s just a way of saying “unaware.” The cat comes out when you are sleeping, which could be a way of saying “the black cat in me comes out while my guard is down or I’m distracted.” So what does the cat represent about you? The black color could indicate something that comes from the dark, unknown inner reaches of your mind. It’s not “bad,” necessarily, but could be something that’s troublesome. Think about the cat and the first few words that come to mind about it. Then ask, do I see this in me, too? And since you give birth to the cat, go through the same process as I describe here for this person — is there something cat-like about yourself emerging? Animals dreams like these are tricky because it’s hard to know exactly what the animals mean opr symbolize, and when you don’t have a lot of context you have to rely more on feelings and instincts. Plus, it’s hard to identify what’s emerging in your personality because when you’ve just “given birth” to it, it’s so new that you don’t recognize it about you yet.

With that in mind, watch your dreams for more dreams about that black cat or any cats.

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